"The central doctrine of Christianity, then, is not that God is a bastard. It is, in the words of the late Dominican theologian Herbert McCabe, that if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you."--Terry Eagleton

"It is impossible for me to say in my book one word about all that music has meant in my life. How then can I hope to be understood?--Ludwig Wittgenstein

“The opposite of poverty is not wealth; the opposite of poverty is justice."--Bryan Stevenson

Monday, December 29, 2014

Of knowledge and comprehension....

I have this framed, reproduced in cross-stitch. I'm only sorry I can't give you a picture of that.

I reference this because it is an excellent article. More and more I think the "conflict" between science and religion is a product of mistake and deliberate misconception (dating back to the 19th century idea that "reason" must replace the "superstition" of religion, an idea that actually has its roots in the 16th century Puritans, who used it to distinguish themselves from the Roman Catholic church). But read the article, and draw your own conclusions.

Myself, I would like to ponder more on the final sentences:

“There is a certain value, as St. Ignatius says, in preferring scorn to praise,” he told RD. “That sense of humility—you’re better off when people hate you. I’m not there yet. But I get what he’s talking about.”

2 Comments:

i have reservations about that. i think that line of thinking can become a dead end of its own, if you let things get to the point where you *want* scorn because you think that in itself proves something- which is the mirror of the problem with praise

i think to be humble you have to be able to question your own premises from time to time. you have to also be willing to accept that those premises might still be proven wrong- which can be rather difficult especially if the proof comes from an otherwise distasteful place. it's a goal, anyway